Exotic Escapism
About Rum & Thatch
Rum & Thatch is the digital speakeasy for the modern tiki revival: a free members’ club for escapism with real craft behind it, gathering at the best tiki bars, on the sand, and by the ember glow of a good cigar lounge. Refined, moody, and quietly private, it’s built for everyone who pours with intention.
The Manifesto
We are here to escape.
Not from our lives. From the noise in them.
We are in pursuit of happiness. The unhurried kind: a slow drink, a warm night, a song that sounds like somewhere else.
Out there, you have a job title, an inbox, a lawn to mow. In here, none of that follows you through the door.
And here is the secret: people are more honest when nothing is riding on the introduction. We come here to be our genuine selves.
In here, we are all the same. Nobody is checking your title.
We gather where the torches are lit: the back of the bar, the sand at dusk, doors that aren't on any map.
We believe a drink made with care is a small act of rebellion against a careless world.
We keep the old rituals (the carved idols, the exotica records, the flame) and we make new ones.
What happens here stays here.
Because this was never a place. It's the people. Wherever we gather, that's the whole thing.
Real names optional.
Stay a while.
Read the full manifesto.
A Letter From the Founder
I want to tell you about a feeling.
You’ve had it. Maybe you were a kid on a family vacation, half-asleep in the back seat, and the air changed: salt, and something green, and you knew before anyone said it that you had arrived somewhere else. Maybe it was a restaurant with a fake waterfall and a pufferfish lamp that shouldn’t have been beautiful but was. Maybe it was just a song. Steel guitar, birdcalls, a vibraphone like light on water. You didn’t have a word for it then.
The word is escape. And somewhere between then and now, we lost the trail to it.
We traded it for inboxes and lawns that always need mowing, for feeds that never end and never satisfy. We got older and the world got louder, and that feeling drifted further out. Some people decide that feeling was childish, a thing you’re supposed to grow out of.
We think it’s the thing you’re supposed to grow back into.
Rum & Thatch exists to find that trail again, together. Once a month, we light the torches somewhere in Florida: the back room of a bar you’ve walked past a hundred times, a stretch of beach at golden hour, and for a few hours, the noise stops. There’s a drink someone made with actual care. There’s music from a place that never quite existed. There are people who came for the same reason you did.
And here is the part that matters most: in here, we are all the same. We don’t ask what you do. Nobody’s title makes it through the door. The surgeon and the line cook stand at the same bar, trading the names they chose for themselves, and you will not be able to tell which is which. That’s not a rule we enforce. It’s the whole point.
You don’t need to own a single tiki mug. You don’t need to know what falernum is. You need only this: the willingness to leave the loud world at the door and be, for one evening, your genuine self, the one in pursuit of happiness, the one you were before the world handed you a job description.
The torches are lit.
Find us.
The Founder
Rum & Thatch · Jacksonville, Florida
What we are
The tiki and tropical-escapism world is a craft: hand-carved mugs, custom syrups, exotica records, and rum collections that take years to assemble. But the scene is scattered, the great rooms are easy to walk past, and finding your people inside them is a matter of luck. Rum & Thatch pulls it together, a single place to discover the scene, gather every month, and actually meet the people who love what you love.
The membership
One membership, free. The calendar it unlocks:
- Mixers (monthly): a night at a great tiki or tropical bar. Come solo or bring your crew; we bring the good company.
- Driftwood Socials (monthly): golden hour on the sand, exotica on the speaker, zero agenda. Every launch market is coastal, so the setting comes free. Attendees are responsible for following local beach ordinances.
- Ember Nights (monthly): a slow evening at a great cigar lounge, low light, leather chairs, and long conversation. No cigar required; come for the room and the company.
Who it’s for
The explorers chasing the next great tropical cocktail. The rum collectors and cigar enthusiasts. The Polynesian Pop obsessives, the Parrot Heads, the escapism devotees, and everyone graduating from mass-market kitsch toward something built with real care. If you value genuine craftsmanship and good company, this is your club.
Starting in Jacksonville
The first torches are lit in Jacksonville, free to join, no invite needed. From there we open Florida market by market (Miami, Orlando, Tampa Bay, the Southwest Coast, and the Keys), each with its own Organizer and a vetted venue list, so every room is worth the trip and the atmosphere is real from night one. The companion mobile app, Tiki Club, comes later.
Come in
Curious how it all fits together? Read How It Works or the FAQ. When you’re ready, join the waitlist, it’s free, and first in line.